Win some, lose some

Automotive Industries, Sept, 2004 by Bruno Lequesne, Richard L. May

I found the tone of your editorial to be entirely out of place in a supposedly technical magazine. Statements referring to John Kerry, such as "If spending 4 months and 12 days as a loose cannon ...," and "this supposed consummate diplomat," would be low enough in a tabloid. They do not belong in a magazine designed for professionals in a specific industry sector. Objectivity and neutrality should be the basis for your code of conduct.

The internet is full of low-level attacks of the sort, on both sides. I am sorry you saw it fit to scoop down to that low level, and to do it in such a one-sided way.

Should one respond with, drinking alcohol for 20 years, and having no one remembering you while you 'served' in the national guard ... is a better qualification to understand the automotive industry? I am sorry you saw it fit to scoop down to that low level, and to do it in such a one-sided way. Keep to technical matters, please. Remember that your readership is diverse, actually. Not everyone is a republican. Or else, rename your magazine to say what you apparently think it should be, low-level political propaganda.

Bruno Lequesne

Rob Wilson's editorial in the August 2004 issue is outstanding. As no good deed goes unpunished, he will no doubt be pilloried on the stake of political correctness.

But until then, the fact that he comments negatively on know-nothing politicians whose only knowledge of science and engineering is spooning sugar into their coffee, is appreciated. They have been politicians so long that they forget that their empty oration does not impress Mother Nature and that hard work and individual initiative are needed to solve our energy-related problems. Maybe the politicians should threaten incarceration for engineers until they cause to happen whatever the latest politically correct drivel they are spouting.

The last three paragraphs of Wilson's editorial is probably the most succinct analysis of the possible directions of the solution to the energy problem. Get Wilson bodyguards. Anyone who talks as straight and sensibly as he does is in danger from the political establishment of the U.S.

Richard L. May